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John Kerry: Guns in U.S. scare foreigners

Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that diplomats told him foreign students are not coming to study in the United States because they are “scared” of gun violence.

“We had an interesting discussion about why fewer students are coming to, particularly from Japan, to study in the United States, and one of the responses I got from our officials from conversations with parents here is that they’re actually scared,” Kerry, who said he discussed the issue with foreign officials, told CNN while in Tokyo.

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In recent years, the rate of Japan students studying abroad has declined, CNN reported. The reports of gun crime in the U.S. reach Japan and Kerry said, “They think they’re not safe in the United States and so they don’t come.”

Kerry cited Japan’s tough gun laws preventing almost all private firearms ownership and said the country was safer “where people are not running around with guns.”

Kerry is currently on an overseas tour that has taken him to South Korea, China and Japan. CNN noted that Japan’s government does not guarantee its citizens the right to have a gun. Lawmakers in Washington, meanwhile, are grappling with a gun background check compromise spearheaded by Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), among others.